Campaigning for Love novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Constance's Offer

At eight the next morning I stood in front of Constance Hubbell's desk.

Her office was a closet with a window.

Nine campaign yard signs leaned against the wall, and a framed photo of her shaking hands with a governor hung behind her head.

She did not ask me to sit.

"I've run nine races," she said. "I have won seven. The two I lost, I lost because of a staffer."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Don't call me ma'am. I'm not your teacher."

She slid a piece of paper across the desk.

"This is a job offer from a firm in Washington, D.C.," she said. "Public affairs. A friend of mine runs it."

"Sixty-two thousand a year, health insurance, and they'll help you find an apartment."

I stared at the number.

"For what?" I asked.

"For leaving today."

"Why would I leave?"

"Because I'm not stupid, Miss Dunn."

She took off her reading glasses and let them fall on their chain.

"A bartender at the Ingersoll told my driver that a guest left the bar with a blond girl in glasses."

"I wasn't wearing my glasses," I said.

I said it before I could stop.

Constance's eyebrows went up.

"Thank you," she said. "That was all I needed."

My face went hot.

I had walked into a trap with my eyes open, in my first twenty-four hours as a political professional.

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